Carlos Santana

Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born 20 July 1947) is a Mexican American Grammy Award-winning musician and Latin-rock guitarist.

He became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, the Santana Blues Band, which created a highly successful blend of salsa, rock, blues, and jazz fusion. Their sound featured his often high-pitched and clean guitar lines set against Latin instrumentation such as timbales and congas. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades, and experienced a sudden resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Over his career he has sold an estimated 80 million albums worldwide.

Santana was born to Jose Santana and Josefina Barragan in AutlÃ¡n de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico, and has two brothers - Antonio and Jorge - and four sisters - Laura, Irma, Leticia, and Maria. Carlos' father played the violin,and was a part of a mariachi troupe. Young Carlos continued the family's musical heritage, originally learning the violin before switching to the guitar when he was eight years old. After a family move to Tijuana Carlos performed occasionally with his fathers m...